Start-up Services  /  Zero to $10M

Your first $10M, without the white noise.

Start-up services for the journey to $10M. Back office, forecasting, funding and senior support, built by operators who have helped grow businesses from zero to $100M+.

You did not start a business to run a back office.

Every start-up walks the same road at a different speed. Get the foundations right. Fund the build. Put a back office behind the growth. Bring in senior heads when the decisions get heavy.

We have walked it from the inside: scrappy early days, tight cash cycles, and the decisions that mattered. We work with founders across agritech, SaaS and software, and deep tech products and services.

To your customers and your investors, we feel like part of your team. We understand what early-stage companies need to build momentum without burning out.

And when you outgrow us and hire in-house, that is the plan working. We help you hire well, hand over properly, and keep the IP inside your business.

Sound familiar?

The stuff that steals your week, and what we do about it.

The 2am back office

You close the laptop after invoices, payroll and GST, and the actual work starts again tomorrow.

What we do

Take the whole back office: bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing, compliance. You get your evenings back.

Cash flow whiplash

A great month, then a GST bill, then provisional tax you forgot was coming.

What we do

A rolling cash flow forecast with tax set aside as you go. No more surprise letters.

Pricing on gut feel

Busy but not banking much. You suspect some work loses money, but you cannot prove which.

What we do

Margin clarity by product, service and customer. Then pricing backed by evidence, not nerve.

The first hires

You need help, but which role actually moves revenue or operations first, and what should it pay?

What we do

Hires designed around what drives the business forward, not bums on seats. Payroll and the people basics, done right the first time.

Slow payers

Revenue on paper, nothing in the bank, and chasing your own customers feels awkward.

What we do

A debtor rhythm: clear terms, invoicing discipline, and follow-up that is not you.

Tool sprawl

A shoebox, three apps and a spreadsheet named FINAL_v7. Nothing talks to anything.

What we do

One clean system, set up to still fit at ten times your size and ready for today's AI tools.

Raising money blind

Investors ask for numbers you do not have, in formats you have never seen.

What we do

Raise-ready forecasts, a tidy data room, and investor updates that build confidence.

Runway guesswork

Decisions made off the bank balance, because there is no forecast you actually trust.

What we do

Burn and runway you believe, with scenarios tested before you commit.

The Start-up Journey

Four stages. Join wherever you are.

01

Start: foundations that hold

Company structure, shares and ESOP headroom set up right the first time. GST, payroll and tax registrations done properly. One clean system that still fits at ten times your size, ready for today's AI tools.

02

Fund: money for the build

The R&D funding map and grant sequencing, then capital raising: a story investors back, numbers that survive diligence, and a plan for the money after it lands. Non-dilutive first, investor money on your terms.

03

Build: a back office that scales

Bookkeeping through to board pack. Payroll, HR basics, invoicing, payables and compliance. Forecasting and runway you actually look at.

04

Scale: senior heads on call

Fractional CFO and COO support for pricing, capacity, investment decisions and capital raising. Experience on tap when you need it, not a bum in a seat.

R&D funding, mapped

Building something genuinely new? There is government money for it.

Most founders leave some of it on the table. We wrote the full guide for What Founders Want: every pot, the deadlines that matter, and the traps that catch good claims.

15%
RDTI credit

The R&D Tax Incentive returns 15% of eligible R&D spend, offset against tax or refunded within limits. Needs $50k+ of eligible spend a year.

28%
Loss cash-out

Loss-making start-ups can cash out up to 28% of R&D tax losses now rather than carrying them forward. Repayable later, so it is modelled before it is claimed.

80%
In-year payments

An interest-free government loan bridging up to 80% of the expected credit during the year, so the cash arrives when the spend happens.

40%
New to R&D grant

Co-funds 40% of eligible costs up to $400k for businesses new to R&D. A separate track with its own rules, applied for before you start.

We wrote the full R&D funding guide for What Founders Want. Ask us, and we will walk you through the whole map.

General information only. Eligibility is decided by Inland Revenue and MBIE.

Whole-business advisory

Growing steadily at $2M to $5M? You need an experienced growth partner.

Someone who has been in businesses, not just advised them. Experience and execution across customers, people, systems and cash: projects delivered, decisions made, and your time handed back.

Projects
A defined piece of work

A pricing review, a systems change, a big decision that deserves an experienced second pair of hands. Scoped, priced, done.

Alongside
Through the next stage

A monthly rhythm with someone across the whole business who keeps things moving, holds the plan to account, and frees up your time.

The whole business
Not just the numbers

Customers, people, systems and cash treated as one system, because in a business your size, they are.

Capital raising

Raising? We have done it, from the inside and out.

We have raised from inside companies, sitting in the CFO seat, and run raises from the outside. More than $1 billion of capital and bank raisings, with clients across agritech, SaaS and software, and deep tech products and services.

Before
Raise ready

A financial model that holds up, a tidy data room, and unit economics you can defend in the room.

During
Steady in the room

Support on investor questions, scenario impacts and term sheets, so you negotiate from knowledge, not hope.

After
Money put to work

Milestones, burn discipline and investor updates that build trust for the next round. Raising it was the start; using it well is the point.

The unlock

Already running well? That is exactly when to move.

Plenty of $2M to $5M businesses run beautifully with the founder holding the back office together. The problem is not today, it is the ceiling: every hour on payroll, GST and chasing invoices is an hour not spent on customers, product and the next stage.

The unlock is handing the whole back office to a team that treats it like an operating function, not a filing cabinet. You get the hours and the headspace back. The business gets a foundation that scales.

Money: bookkeeping, payroll, invoicing and payables, GST and tax compliance, monthly reporting.

Foresight: cash flow forecasting, runway and burn tracking, budgets, pricing and margin clarity.

Capital: raise preparation, investor reporting, R&D funding claims, and the discipline to put the money to work well after it lands.

People and process: HR basics, workflow design, systems selection, and the handover plan for when you hire in-house.

Fees

Flexible by design, because start-up cash flow is lumpy. Want a defined price to start? Our Core Accounting plans are fixed and published. We reply within one working day, and we scope work within two weeks. Not sure we have the right experience? Just ask. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you to someone who is.

See the Core Accounting plans

Hourly

Our time charged at agreed hourly rates.

Fixed

Agreed price or caps for identified scopes of work.

Retainer

Fixed price periodic fee, usually on monthly basis for identified scopes of work over an agreed period of time.
Passing $10M?

We bring in experts to scale

From $10M the questions change: executive structure, governance, capital strategy, exits. That is our Fractional CFO and COO practice, built for leaders scaling $10M to $100M.

Meet the team that runs $10M to $100M

Want a clearer picture of where things stand?

Tell us what you’re dealing with and we’ll suggest the simplest next step.

Book a chat